troops fighting in afghanistan. shortly, president obama will leave the white house and head here to the capitol where he will make the afghan announcement as part of the state of the union address a new cbs news poll out tonight finds the president's job approval rating at 52%, but he gets poor grades on his handling of the economy, while 45% approve of the job he's doing, 49% disapprove, which is why the economy, with unemployment at 7.9%, will get a lot of attention tonight. major garrett is at the white house for us tonight. major? >> reporter: scott, democrats briefed by the white house tell us there will be specific new ideas from president obama, some he's never proposed before to increase wages and boost federal investment in manufacturing research. there will be other initiatives as well and we are told the president will make it clear to congress if it doesn't act he is prepared-- at least in some cases-- to use executive authority. the president's speech will begin and wednesday a focus on the economy. in one excerpt, mr. obama will say "everyday we should a ask ourselv

obama had this warning today. >> so these cuts are not smart. they are not fair. they will hurt our economy. they will add hundreds of thousands of americans to the unemployment rolls. this is not an abstraction-- people will lose their jobs. the unemployment rate might tick up again. >> pelley: mr. obama wants more tax revenue. the republicans say no, and each side says it's up to the other to give in. major garrett is at the white house for us tonight. major, what next? >> well, the continued effort by the white house, scott, to apply public pressure on republicans to relent. this will be done in public events like we saw today. it's already been done privately. top government officials are warning businesses they could be harmed by these looming spending cuts. here's one example we've learned of. last friday, top officials at the agriculture department warned meat and poultry producers that there might not be enough federal inspectors to keep their processing plants open and operating. these warnings are designed to motivate businesses to plead with republicans to find another wa

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